Week 14 in Durham: Sometimes Missing the Bus is a Good Thing

This week was pretty solid. Elder Edmund and I are doing awesome! Durham is still...well Durham. In the mission it is referred to as the "Dirty D." It is pretty dirty here, but I love it! 

On Monday, after P-Day, we went  to dinner with a family in the ward, the Halls. And they are big time players! They feed us all the time. She is an awesome cook. She asks us what we want, and then makes it! After dinner, we went out and tried some potentials. None of them answered, so we tracted for the next hour. We didn't find anyone, but that's ok! At 8, we went downtown to meet a member at his job. Brother Isley own an architecture business. We visit members and teach them "Active Member Lessons." But, let me tell you, downtown Durham is scary at night! The weirdest people wander these streets!

Tuesday, we went downtown, again, to try some more potentials, and a recent convert in the ward. On the way we found another church whose name was, The True Way in God, Christ Jesus. People think our church is a mouthful! 

I went on exchange Wednesday with Elder Garlick (one of the zone leaders). All of our appointments fell through, so we tracted all day. We also got kicked out of two complexes. But, tracting is starting to grow on me! We found Leah. She is from Arizona and used to live right next to the Gilbert Temple. She had a bunch of LDS friends, and went to mutual a lot. She said she saw us coming and got some Girl Scout cookies ready for us! I can't wait to start teaching her!

On Friday, we had the ward party. The theme was "The Tonight Show." The different auxiliaries (Young Women, Young Men, Primary, and Relief Society) put together some games and videos. All of our investigators that said they would come, didn't show up. That was a bummer, but the desserts were so good!!

Sunday was the best day of the week! Even though no one came to church, it was great! We had gotten home from church, and went to a member's home for dinner. When we got back, we had to catch the bus to go to an area we needed to tract. As we were walking up the hill to the bus stop, we saw the bus drive by! It wasn't supposed to be there for another 5 minutes! Now we had no way to go anywhere (my bike's pedal stripped out, but that's another story). We are walking back home, and just as we round the corner to our apartment, we get a text. It was from Pam. It said, "Will you pray with me?" She sent that just as we got to out apartment and she is in her backyard! So, we started talking to her. Her best friend had just passed away. Earlier this week, 2 of her other friends had died, she was arrested, and a dog attacked her. She had a ridiculous week! She broke down and started crying.  We said a prayer with her, and asked if she would like a priesthood blessing. She said she wanted one. I gave her a blessing, and it was an amazing experience. I think we were supposed to miss that bus so we could do exactly what Mosiah 18:9 says:

"Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things, and all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life-"

What happened yesterday, counts as a miracle in my book! 

That's it for this week! Our baptism commitments are going ok. I don't think they fully understand yet, but we are working on that!! Have a good week! 

Love, 

Elder Merritt

Week 13 in Durham: New Companion, Same Area

Hey everyone! This week has been interesting! I am all done with training, and it's awesome! My new companion is Elder Edman. He's a pretty cool guy. He likes to have fun, but works hard too. He went to USU and played on the Quidditch team. He has been out for about a year. 

(First transfer)

This week we really didn't teach anyone. And I have no crazy tracting stories to share! Which is weird because I usually have something to share. Elder Edman broke a lamp and we got free pizza again, that's all I have.

We went to the Institute building again to play Nerf Wars. I won, again. 

We also had to go to Duke hospital to visit someone. After, while we waited for our bus, we visited the Duke Chapel. It is so big and looks so cool! We didn't go inside, but hopefully we can soon. They have an original Book of Mormon you can go see. We can turn pages and take pictures, so I hope to share those with you soon. 

(Duke Church)

Mom told me about Grandma Betty. Please let her know I love her and know whatever happens, she will be ok.

That's about it for the week. Mom asked me two questions that I wanted to answer. 1) What is the hardest thing about your mission? The hardest part of the mission, so far, is probably not being able to take a break and relax more often. I come home every night tired and sore. But I guess that means I am working hard! 2) What is the greatest thing about your mission? I think the greatest thing is when you teach people, you can see them feeling the Spirit and then accepting the message. Missionary work is a great thing to do! I think it's a lot easier than people think. Sometimes, it feels like our name tag is a shield, and no matter what people say, it doesn't affect us. But I don't think you need a name tag for that. You just need to have the Spirit with you when you share the gospel.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Love, 

Elder Merritt

Week 12 in Durham: Free Pizza, a Bus Ride, and I Broke a Streak!

Monday, we went shopping, played Zombies and Bang.

We rode the bus a lot on Tuesday.  There was a cop riding the whole time. We were teaching a couple, Jon and Tony. Jon said, "I just want to know the truth!" It was pretty cool for us because we were like, "We have the truth!"

Wednesday, we rode the bus some more. And tracted all day. We taught Ian the Plan of Salvation and he really liked it a lot. He called us his "Bros" and his "Boys." He is a really cool guy. We also stopped by another couple, Stan and Mary. Stan opened the door, but he said he didn't have time tonight. He then proceeded to tell Elder Rawlins that he looks like Tome Brady. He gave him the title, "Tom Brady of the Mormons." Elder Rawlins seemed to really like that concept. 

The Duke and UNC game was played on Thursday. It is a big deal out here! Elder Rawlins and I bought Duke shirts to wear when we got home. We stopped by Ian's work (little Caesar's) to see how he was doing wth reading and is he was coming to church. He gave us a free pizza! It was one of the greatest moments of my life!

It was Scrap Exchange Friday!! We ended up sorting stamps, CDs , and cassette tapes. We stopped to see Ian again and answer his questions. He told me I look like Grayson Allen (a Duke basketball player). 

On Saturday, we had an appointment with Nick. We talked with him on his back porch about Temples and what we do in them. We  received transfer news as well. Elder Rawlins is leaving and going to Creedmor. I am staying in D1! I was so happy! I will hopefully be able to help Ian make his baptismal date of March 18th. It has been over a year since any elder has stayed in the area. They have double transferred here since last January. We broke the streak!!

We went to church on Sunday.. Ian came too, even though he wasn't feeling well. He told us, "I wasn't going to miss this time!" He is the man! He really enjoyed it. The rest of the time at church, Elder Rawlins was saying goodbye to everyone. The Ward Council was super happy to hear that one of us was staying through a transfer. I took a picture with the Master Chief today:

It's been a good week, a little boring, but good. I'm in Durham for 6 more weeks!

Elder Merritt

Week 11 in Durham:The Chapel Hill Bible Church

Monday was a normal P-Day. We all played Zombies again, but now the sisters are in on it. We had like 16-20 missionaries playing it. It was so nuts! Afterwards, Elder Rawlins and I ate at Nick's (one of our investigators) for dinner. It was the first time we had met his wife, Jenny. We talked to them about the Book of Mormon some more. We invited them to come to church, and they said they would if we went to theirs this week.

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we went to the Scrap Exchange again. I think this was our last time going there. Elder Garlick (one of our Zone leaders) sorted plastic bags for two hours. Elder Rawlins and Elder Hawks sorted random containers. That night we went and met with Ian again. This time we got into the Plan of Salvation. He seemed really interested in it. When we were done, he told us that he really likes what we are telling him, and he feels something while we talk to him. He brought up a question. He said, "Ever since we started talking, my life has had some troubles. Has that ever happened to you guys before?" I responded, "When we talk to you, we are teaching what Christ taught while He was on the earth. When you learn it's true, you become closer to God. There's only one person who doesn't want you to do that. Satan will start throwing things at you because he doesn't want you to know the truth." He seemed relieved when I told him that. We invited him to be baptized on March 18th, and he said he would be!

Mom, you'll enjoy the news I have for Thursday. In the morning we had someone come by to check the cleanliness of our apartment. We knew he was coming, so we cleaned everything in the house! I don't think my room has ever looked so clean! When he showed up, he looked around, and told us he was impressed with how clean our apartment was. I had cleaned and organized all of my stuff for this. It took like 3 hours of cleaning and scrubbing for our place to look nice.

I went on Exchange with Elder Sprunt (one of the Chapel Hill elders) on Friday. We met with Harrol, another one of our investigators. We reviewed the Plan of Salvation. He told us that he could believe that it is true, and he liked the idea that people who never had the chance to receive the gospel would be able to after they died. HE said he wants to learn more before he commits to being baptized. We told him that if we set a date, he could learn as much as he could before then.  He said that was a good idea. We invited him to be baptized on April 8th. After that Elder Sprunt and I went to Nick's to talk to him. We talked about prophets, and why there needs to be a prophet on the earth today. We shared Amos 3:7 with him. We explained that if God is doing things today there needs to be  a prophet on earth. At the end, I showed him a talk by President Monson. I asked if he would watch it before we meet again. That night we went tracting and met a guy named Brandon. Brandon invited us in. He was playing Blood Borne (it's a video game). He paused the game so we could talk. We were with him for about 45 minutes to an hour. We shared the whole Restoration, and he invites us back!

Sunday was a crazy day! We went to Nick's Bible Study church. We were expecting it to be 110 people at most since it was "Bible Study." Boy, were we wrong! The church was huge! It was one of those churches with a rock band going on. It was crazy. Afterwards, Nick and his wife came to our church. We haven't talked to them to see how they liked it. 

Well, that was this week. Everything is going well in NCRM!

Elder Merritt